For all the Flex Users both past and present, would you return to Flex Radio or any SDR that is direct connection to the PC? Reason I ask is that I am a bit wobbly at the moment in that I miss the tweaking and large screen output that I got with the Flex 5000 in comparison to the 7300. Your views are most welcome.

I have a 6500 so have some real world experience but have never used a 5000, but as the 5000 is getting old and the 6000's currently supported and still in development it's a simple choice which one would be a better investment,

I wasn't impressed with the Icom 7300 I used but it was only a few hours in a less than ideal environment.

Some of the big differences between a 5000 and a 6000 series flex would be that the 6000 does most of the processing in the radio and not the PC so you don't need a top spec pc to run it, the 6000 connects over Ethernet and not some obsolete port that can't be got (easily) any more,

you can see 7mhz of bandwidth on a 6300 unlike a 5000 thats limited to 192khz,

The DAX (digital audio) and Cat programs that come as part of SmartSDR are light years ahead of what the 5000 uses for digital audio and cat interfacing,

Setting up digi mode programs to run is a breeze on a 6000 seriers flex, I can run fldigi,mmtty,wsjt,cw skimmer, mrp40, 2tone and gritty all at once across 4 different recievers,

With a 6300 you would be limited to 2 recievers but its still quiet impressive if you are into digi modes,

That's just my opinion for what its worth,

2E0JGR wrote:

ei2glb wrote:

Personally I'd look at a 6300 over a 5000,

Why what real world advantage has it really got over the 5000? I know what most are I just want to hear it from the horses mouth so to speak, if you are a user that is?

The main difference between the 5000 and the 6300 is that the 6300 does all the RF processing in the radio and the software is simply the control 'surface'. On the other hand the 5000 does not have 'on board' processing, the software does everything using the computer and you need a firewire connection on the computer.

Having said that, some people will tell you that Power SDR is better than Smart SDR. There have been lots of people developing Power SDR as it is open source and there are certainly some very itersting versions of it about. Smart SDR is exclusively developed by Flex themselves.

Personally, I have very limited experience with Power SDR and lots of experience with Smart SDR.

I love the combination of Smart SDR and my 6300 - best radio I have owned in nearly 60 years of owning radios.

At the end of the month I will have the chance to compare the 6300 against the 7300 which I am looking forward to with interest. One thing I do know is that with the 6300 I can look at a chunk of RF 7Mhz wide whereas with the 7300 I will be limited to a great deal less. Also I will see the spectrum on my screen with the Flex and on the 7300 I am limited to the on board tiny screen which I think will make a great deal of difference.

Thanks to all for their comments, it is the waterfall on the large screen and the ability to tweak that won me over on the Flex 5000A and as for processing power I have more than I could ever need with this homebuilt system as I ran a 5000A on this very system. 6300 has not appealed to me as I don't want or need extra slices or the ability to do all the post processing via the transceiver, and 192kHz of bandwidth was more than enough to show me what I needed.

6300 has not appealed to me as I don't want or need extra slices or the ability to do all the post processing via the transceiver, and 192kHz of bandwidth was more than enough to show me what I needed.

Ability to monitor more than one band at once, you're not just tied to SmartSDR so you're not tied to Windows and someone has even had one working on a Samsung Galaxy S5 phone, remote operation so you can have the radio in your shack and use it from your computer in your living room as if you were sat at the radio.

I have a Flex, but wanted something all in one box - as the Flex tied up my computer.So, I got an IC-7300 for less than the price of a Maestro Console for the Flex!!!!Very impressed. Plus, I can also get software to use from computer (with a bigger screen area) and for remote operations.Not quite as al singing and dancing as the Flex, but much easier/quicker to use for most of my day to day operations.Mike G3YSG

The IC-7300 is a great radio but not as flexible at the Anan - guess you need to decide if you can get on with a PC type interface or prefer good old knobs and buttons albeit with an SDR lurking behind the user interface.

I have both as I couldn't make my mind up !

No matter which one you settle on I'm sure you'll be very pleased.

_________________G8GIW licensed in 1972 (C&G RAE), then G4WIM in 1984 (12 wpm CW test), then KT6UK in 2000 (USA Extra Class), now safely back in the UK and retired early (Google bought the company I was working for !)

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